COLUMN - Political View with Pip Allnatt (Melton Borough Council leader)

From international to local politics, we are angry.

The babbling of President Trump about British forces in Afghanistan led to a widespread desire to name a new road after our fallen comrade, Marcin Wojtak.

It’s a pity that this came too late for the Reform-run Leicestershire County Council. So much for their patriotism.

But Trump’s insults were underpinned by the odious and sycophantic support for his re-election by Reform’s leader, Mr Nigel Farage.

So, we should not be surprised when two Leicestershire Reform councillors condone and praise Trump’s uniformed killers on US streets, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal agency which recently shot two US citizens in Minnesota.

Now Farage wants to cut family allowance to subsidise pubs! Disgraceful!

The Reform psycho-drama continues. Police Commissioner, renegade Conservative Rupert Matthews, castigates the Chief Constable and upsets his new Reform friend, county council Leader Dan Harrison, as the all-party police and crime panel rejects Matthews’ police budget.

At the same time, Dan wastes £1.4M on failing to find waste at County Hall and increases Council Tax anyway.

This is the same pattern across the country, as one Reform council after another break their election promises.

The appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US was wrong, and I said so at the time, but I do not recall Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch complaining about Mandelson’s appointment because of links to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted trafficker and child sex offender.

‘Captain Hindsight’ can shut up.

Political appointments are not unusual. Tony Blair appointed Tory Chris Patton as the last Governor in Hong Kong and, apparently, Prime Minister Keir Starmer considered Conservative George Osborne before plumping for Mandelson.

I was impressed by one of Epstein’s victims remarking that, currently, the only one in prison is a female, Ghislaine Maxwell, and graciously thanking Starmer for his honesty.

So, I will await the full facts before making my own judgement about Starmer.

Just as I did about inheritance tax on small farmers. After listening to my colleagues, Councillors Richard Sharp and Helen Cliff, we asked the government to modify this policy and they did. So, democracy is not all bad.